So I promised a post like a week ago and that didn't happen... Sorry!
A lot has happened and it's all been good but it has been keeping me very busy.
Let's back it up...
Thursday, September 19
My first SAI meeting as an alumnae! This was super exciting for a few reasons. So in case you didn't know let me back up even past Thursday September 19, 2013. In December of my freshman year I went to SAI recruitment (I think that's what we're allowed to call it these days? If not, sorry NEB!) and loved it! Before coming to college I'd already made up my mind that I would do a musical greek organization and was so glad to have our SAI chapter! Every girl I ever lived with in college was in SAI, almost all of my closest friends were in it and I had the honor of serving in many leadership positions including being President my senior year (which was fun and a great experience but I do not recommend being President during Student Teaching due to the fact that you're out of the building a lot and it's just complicated so sorry Theta Chi, I did the best I could!). I had the privilege of going to the 2012 National Convention where Theta Chi won the National Collegiate Chapter Achievement award which was amazing!!
Back to Thursday September 19... So when we first learned that we would be moving to ND I did a quick search to see if there were any SAI alumnae chapters in the state. I was not sure what to expect considering that South Carolina has none and both Furman and USC have huge chapters that are very successful (Furman has also won the National Collegiate Chapter Achievement Award). I was so excited to find out that there was an active alumnae chapter in Fargo! So I contacted the ladies and found out when they met and attended their first meeting. Now, Fargo is about an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and a half from Jamestown (depends on which part of Fargo I'm going to) and while that's kind of far for a Thursday, remember, I do not teach on Fridays! So no problem at all!
As soon as I arrived at the meeting I felt very at home right away! There was a salad potluck (I brought pasta salad) and the food was yummy. I had a nice time talking with all of the ladies. There were SAI's there ranging from a year older than me to 50 year members. I love seeing the ladies who have been in it for so many years. At the end of the meeting we had a memorial ceremony which (fortunately) I had not yet seen. The Fargo-Moorehead ladies lost two members this summer. Even though I did not know those women it was very touching to hear their stories and see how the sisters you have in SAI will care about you through to the end. Also I got to meet a woman who is only a year older than me and in a very similar situation of having a part time elementary music job, always thought she'd teach band... you know the rest. Also, the lady who hosted the meeting was so sweet and told me that my story was very similar to her's (though about band... ended up elementary... blah blah blah) and she is a flutist and really ended up enjoying elementary and did it until her retirement! All in all, a wonderful experience and it was very encouraging.
Saturday, September 21
I had my first concert with BMSO! It was really fun!
Andrew and I thought we'd drive out to Bismarck early-ish and do some shopping and see what Bismarck has to offer. Well we did all of it in like an hour and then were bored so we went to Target. Target is nice. Also we had great pizza at Fireflour Pizza. Highly recommend if you are in Bismarck (which you probs won't be and I understand). Basically we learned that if I have a 7pm call we can leave by like 2 and get there in time to have a nice dinner and do everything we want to do in Bismarck for the day.
Earlier that day I went to an early morning yoga class at the arts center. Every first and third Saturday the arts center in Jamestown has a yoga class and it was awesome! It was nice and relaxing to do some 8:30 yoga among art. I will definitely be going back in October!
Sunday September 22
This evening I played on the Music Booster's Gift of Music fundraising concert. It was fun! I played Danse de la Chevre (a crowd favorite) and I enjoyed wearing heels, a full face of make up, and hearing a lot of other members from the community perform either on instruments or with their voice. Next year Andrew will be playing too or we'll do something together.
September 23-27
This week was good. I got a lot done at school and went to the gym Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday I did yoga (with the same lady from the arts center) and I can tell that even after those two classes I'm way more flexible so I will keep going back. Wednesday I just ran, my mile time keeps getting better! It's currently embarrassing so I will keep it to myself :) and Thursday I went to a buns, thighs, and abs class. Friday I just did the elliptical.
Also this week a lot of my fav TV shows came back! HIMYM, New Girl, Mindy Project, Modern Family, Parks and Rec, and Greys.
I felt like I could related to both Jess and Mindy (as I do every week) but especially when Jess woke up from her hang over and was like "Where are my tights?" Hahaha although I'm not hungover that is typically how I feel most mornings before school like, can someone please bring me my tights so I can go to school? I wear tights a lot. I sit on the floor a lot. In skirts. And dresses. I tie a lot of shoes. The first graders just can't tie shoes. The few who can love to tie everyone's shoes and it takes a really long time and I think sometimes they will untie their shoes just to retie them. We have a new rule in first grade music NO TOUCHING SHOE LACES! I make sure they are all tied when they walk through the door then if any come untied I fix them. I don't remember when I learned to tie my shoes but maybe it was first grade?
September 28
TODAY! This morning I went to the gym and then nearly had a heart attack during the USC game. I realized that I truly am a Carolina fan though. I always wondered if I was a true fan but today I realized I am. Around the end of the second quarter I looked at Andrew and said "This was supposed to be our year" and he reminded me that gamecock fans have been saying that every year since the start of the football program. That's when I realized I'm a real Carolina fan. Now I'm hoping for a LSU win over UGA, later Andrew and I are going to Oktoberfest at the fairgrounds in town, then we're going over to the high school band director's house for game night!
Should be fun!
Props if you made it all the way to the end. That's dedication.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Rainy Saturday
Today is a rainy Saturday and it is awesome. I have the sniffles but I am so hopeful it will not turn into a sinus infection because the soudafed (sp?) has been very helpful! Usually, for me at least, when it is a sinus infection the decongestant does nothing for me. Anyways, so I was bummed because I was super busy last week and didn't get to go to the gym since Monday and was so looking forward to going Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday (since next week will be busy too). However, I am enjoying lounging around in my yoga pants and carolina sweatshirt. Right now Animal Plant is on, it's really relaxing and I like learning about different breeds of dogs. It is a nice Saturday filler between football games.
I'm obsessed with dogs. Corgi's in particular. However, when the time is right for Andrew and I to finally adopt our adorable ball of fur we'll go to a shelter or try to rescue one and it'll be whatever is availible. One day however, I will get a corgi because Andrew moved us to North Dakota. It seemed fair to both of us at the time. Corgi's love the cold :) We do probs want to wait on a corgi until we have slightly older kids so it won't herd and nip a baby. It wouldn't do it to be mean but it is something to think about, it can't fight nature. So who know's what we'll actually get. I do like big dogs too. A golden retriever or a chocolate lab would be awesome.
Ok so I love food blogs and while I do not want to turn this into a food blog because I don't really create recipes but I do want to share some recipes I've made lately that have been awesome!
So, one of the first things Andrew and I made one weekend was this super easy and tasty chicken!
Of course I had pinned this recipe a while ago. It's called "Man Pleasing Chicken" I enjoyed it too as a woman.
So easy, you just take some chicken thighs and cook them in a sauce made from dijon mustard, maple syrup, and rice wine vinegar. Here's the link to the blog, but I highly recommend. I served it over rice with a side salad. Heats up well in leftovers.
http://www.wittyinthecity.com/2011/08/man-pleasing-chicken/
Last week our church (Grace Episcopal) had a unity service where they combined the morning and evening services into one service in the afternoon followed by a potluck. So, we have a kitchenaid now (thanks Meme and Papa!) and I want to use it but don't want to have baked goods a lot and also we were sad about USC loosing to UGA :( so the normal response is to make cookies, right? Well it's totes fine if you give them away which we did!
This is another pinterest recipe which I really liked because it was easy and the clean up was easy as well! I enjoy cooking but HATE cleaning up which sometimes that alone will discourage me from baking.
They were "Perfect M&M Cookies" and that they were! I like how they had both mini chocolate chips AND mini m&m's. One batch made about 2 dozen but we had enough stuff to make a second batch so we did so we could enjoy some Saturday night and soothe the sadness that football brought us. Also, as new people at church we didn't want to bring something bad...
Here's the recipe!
http://picky-palate.com/2013/04/03/how-to-make-perfect-m-and-m-cookies/
Tonight, for this rainy Saturday and football evening we are going to make a long loved recipe, white turkey chili! We FINALLY found ground turkey in the grocery stores here. Walmart has it but I really don't feel comfortable buying meat from Walmart. Coborns has the Jenny-O tubes of 1 lb ground turkey and it's not my fave but I had gotten so used to substituting turkey for beef I was so upset when Coborns didn't have it the first few weeks we were here. I was distraught. Ok that was dramatic, I was very upset. Anyways, they've had it for a while now and I just buy one every time I go and if it's not going to be used that week I'm going to freeze it. ANYWAYS, I love this white turkey chili from SkinnyTaste. SkinnyTaste is one of my favorite food blogs! It is very indepth and a lot of the recipes are complicated but the lady who writes it always calculates the Weight Watchers points of her recipes which is nice, even if you don't do Weight Watchers the number of points helps you gauge how healthy the recipe may be. Usually her recipes have a lot of flavor from the spices she uses so the first few you do may be a little expensive but once you have the basic supplies they are not as expensive. I'd say that's the only reason I don't eat off of skinny taste constantly.
I actually halved this recipe and even with it halved I only use 1lb of turkey because well, who can afford 3 lbs of ground turkey? Plus Andrew and I will have to work to eat all 7 servings of this, much less 14!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/03/white-bean-turkey-chili-4-pts.html
And if you're keeping track, one cup is only 5 WW points! What a deal!
This heats up well too. I will probs have some for lunch on Monday :)
So, that's what's going on here... Next week is busy. Tuesday I'm going to Bismarck for BMSO rehearsal, Thursday I'm going to Fargo for my first SAI alumnae meeting (!!!), Friday I have BMSO but Andrew is going to come with me and we're going to get dinner and explore some (that rehearsal I only play on the last piece), then Saturday is the concert!
Here's to hoping these sniffles go away! At least before Tuesday but I'd love to go to HIIT class at the gym on Monday.
BTW, Go cocks! Beat Vandy!
ALSO if any teacher friends/vocalists have any recommendations for hot tea to soothe the throat please let me know! I get paid on Friday (finally!) and am going to place an order to Adagio and am looking for some herbal tea to keep at school/drink after school.
I'm obsessed with dogs. Corgi's in particular. However, when the time is right for Andrew and I to finally adopt our adorable ball of fur we'll go to a shelter or try to rescue one and it'll be whatever is availible. One day however, I will get a corgi because Andrew moved us to North Dakota. It seemed fair to both of us at the time. Corgi's love the cold :) We do probs want to wait on a corgi until we have slightly older kids so it won't herd and nip a baby. It wouldn't do it to be mean but it is something to think about, it can't fight nature. So who know's what we'll actually get. I do like big dogs too. A golden retriever or a chocolate lab would be awesome.
Ok so I love food blogs and while I do not want to turn this into a food blog because I don't really create recipes but I do want to share some recipes I've made lately that have been awesome!
So, one of the first things Andrew and I made one weekend was this super easy and tasty chicken!
Of course I had pinned this recipe a while ago. It's called "Man Pleasing Chicken" I enjoyed it too as a woman.
So easy, you just take some chicken thighs and cook them in a sauce made from dijon mustard, maple syrup, and rice wine vinegar. Here's the link to the blog, but I highly recommend. I served it over rice with a side salad. Heats up well in leftovers.
http://www.wittyinthecity.com/2011/08/man-pleasing-chicken/
Last week our church (Grace Episcopal) had a unity service where they combined the morning and evening services into one service in the afternoon followed by a potluck. So, we have a kitchenaid now (thanks Meme and Papa!) and I want to use it but don't want to have baked goods a lot and also we were sad about USC loosing to UGA :( so the normal response is to make cookies, right? Well it's totes fine if you give them away which we did!
This is another pinterest recipe which I really liked because it was easy and the clean up was easy as well! I enjoy cooking but HATE cleaning up which sometimes that alone will discourage me from baking.
They were "Perfect M&M Cookies" and that they were! I like how they had both mini chocolate chips AND mini m&m's. One batch made about 2 dozen but we had enough stuff to make a second batch so we did so we could enjoy some Saturday night and soothe the sadness that football brought us. Also, as new people at church we didn't want to bring something bad...
Here's the recipe!
http://picky-palate.com/2013/04/03/how-to-make-perfect-m-and-m-cookies/
Tonight, for this rainy Saturday and football evening we are going to make a long loved recipe, white turkey chili! We FINALLY found ground turkey in the grocery stores here. Walmart has it but I really don't feel comfortable buying meat from Walmart. Coborns has the Jenny-O tubes of 1 lb ground turkey and it's not my fave but I had gotten so used to substituting turkey for beef I was so upset when Coborns didn't have it the first few weeks we were here. I was distraught. Ok that was dramatic, I was very upset. Anyways, they've had it for a while now and I just buy one every time I go and if it's not going to be used that week I'm going to freeze it. ANYWAYS, I love this white turkey chili from SkinnyTaste. SkinnyTaste is one of my favorite food blogs! It is very indepth and a lot of the recipes are complicated but the lady who writes it always calculates the Weight Watchers points of her recipes which is nice, even if you don't do Weight Watchers the number of points helps you gauge how healthy the recipe may be. Usually her recipes have a lot of flavor from the spices she uses so the first few you do may be a little expensive but once you have the basic supplies they are not as expensive. I'd say that's the only reason I don't eat off of skinny taste constantly.
I actually halved this recipe and even with it halved I only use 1lb of turkey because well, who can afford 3 lbs of ground turkey? Plus Andrew and I will have to work to eat all 7 servings of this, much less 14!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/03/white-bean-turkey-chili-4-pts.html
And if you're keeping track, one cup is only 5 WW points! What a deal!
This heats up well too. I will probs have some for lunch on Monday :)
So, that's what's going on here... Next week is busy. Tuesday I'm going to Bismarck for BMSO rehearsal, Thursday I'm going to Fargo for my first SAI alumnae meeting (!!!), Friday I have BMSO but Andrew is going to come with me and we're going to get dinner and explore some (that rehearsal I only play on the last piece), then Saturday is the concert!
Here's to hoping these sniffles go away! At least before Tuesday but I'd love to go to HIIT class at the gym on Monday.
BTW, Go cocks! Beat Vandy!
ALSO if any teacher friends/vocalists have any recommendations for hot tea to soothe the throat please let me know! I get paid on Friday (finally!) and am going to place an order to Adagio and am looking for some herbal tea to keep at school/drink after school.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
I Really Live Here
So I keep having these moments where it's like woah, I actually live here.
Here's a list of things that trigger this:
1) ND license plates
2) Getting a new driver's license and having my Georgia one taken away
3) When asked for my license (in a variety of situations) people not doing a double take at an out of state license
4) Paying rent
5) Getting bills
6) Cleaning the house (as in wow it's worth cleaning because I live here)
7) Doing laundry (because I need clean clothes because I live here)
There's more. Typically one a day or so moments where I'm like this is real.
Also I have these moments where I'm like wow I'm the adult in this situation. Weird.
(This is a really scattered post)
So I have some really hilarious kids I teach. As I post about my teaching adventures on here please do not critique my teaching style because well it's my first year and I have a degree and my principal is happy and my coworkers are happy and I'm doing the best I can for this literally being my first elementary experience.
I was really proud of my first graders today. We used rhythm sticks for the first time and no one hit anyone else with the rhythm sticks! We did a beat to Miss Mary Mack. It was precious. I was proud. They can be tough. Also in the same day as my first grade triumph I was on the floor talking to a kindergartener hiding under my desk while I could feel other kindergarten hands touching my legs and asking "What is this?" about my tights. Kindergarten hands are tiny and cute. And germy.
One of the girls I teach in Kindergarten at Roosevelt looks exactly like Michelle from Full House. I am just like wow I know exactly what you will look like when you grow up. She's also in a class with some other characters. There's another girl in that class that everyday asks me if we're going to make music. Adorable. Also when she says stuff she never "likes" it she only "LOVES" it. So today I wore my glasses and it was "Mrs. Naber I LOVE your glasses!" and when one says it then it's a chain reaction "I like your dress" "I like your shoes". Kindergarten makes you feel good about yourself.
Anyways, more stories to come.
So I have a new job too! I am a section flutist for the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra (BMSO) which is crazy because it's not like a youth orchestra that I am paying to be in, I'm being paid. Again, wow I'm an adult. Being an adult is cool. No I haven't had to pay too many bills yet so it does still feel cool. I am just a section flutist though so I don't play every piece but hopefully I'll get to play every concert (except the one on April 12, love you Lyndsey and Matt!)! This concert I'm playing on the Three Cornered Hat. However, I do need a piccolo soon so I'll be saving my pennies and Andrew did just buy a tenor so it's only fair. Which he did need the tenor. I'm glad he got a good deal on it so if anyone sees a piccolo for a good price, let me know! It'll be after Christmas before I could buy but I'm in the market!
This was a really scattered post but it doesn't matter. Deal with it.
Here's a list of things that trigger this:
1) ND license plates
2) Getting a new driver's license and having my Georgia one taken away
3) When asked for my license (in a variety of situations) people not doing a double take at an out of state license
4) Paying rent
5) Getting bills
6) Cleaning the house (as in wow it's worth cleaning because I live here)
7) Doing laundry (because I need clean clothes because I live here)
There's more. Typically one a day or so moments where I'm like this is real.
Also I have these moments where I'm like wow I'm the adult in this situation. Weird.
(This is a really scattered post)
So I have some really hilarious kids I teach. As I post about my teaching adventures on here please do not critique my teaching style because well it's my first year and I have a degree and my principal is happy and my coworkers are happy and I'm doing the best I can for this literally being my first elementary experience.
I was really proud of my first graders today. We used rhythm sticks for the first time and no one hit anyone else with the rhythm sticks! We did a beat to Miss Mary Mack. It was precious. I was proud. They can be tough. Also in the same day as my first grade triumph I was on the floor talking to a kindergartener hiding under my desk while I could feel other kindergarten hands touching my legs and asking "What is this?" about my tights. Kindergarten hands are tiny and cute. And germy.
One of the girls I teach in Kindergarten at Roosevelt looks exactly like Michelle from Full House. I am just like wow I know exactly what you will look like when you grow up. She's also in a class with some other characters. There's another girl in that class that everyday asks me if we're going to make music. Adorable. Also when she says stuff she never "likes" it she only "LOVES" it. So today I wore my glasses and it was "Mrs. Naber I LOVE your glasses!" and when one says it then it's a chain reaction "I like your dress" "I like your shoes". Kindergarten makes you feel good about yourself.
Anyways, more stories to come.
So I have a new job too! I am a section flutist for the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra (BMSO) which is crazy because it's not like a youth orchestra that I am paying to be in, I'm being paid. Again, wow I'm an adult. Being an adult is cool. No I haven't had to pay too many bills yet so it does still feel cool. I am just a section flutist though so I don't play every piece but hopefully I'll get to play every concert (except the one on April 12, love you Lyndsey and Matt!)! This concert I'm playing on the Three Cornered Hat. However, I do need a piccolo soon so I'll be saving my pennies and Andrew did just buy a tenor so it's only fair. Which he did need the tenor. I'm glad he got a good deal on it so if anyone sees a piccolo for a good price, let me know! It'll be after Christmas before I could buy but I'm in the market!
This was a really scattered post but it doesn't matter. Deal with it.
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